I’ve been playing around with Linux on the Xbox for a while. I finally decided to stop piddling about with the stock drive and create a fully featured network server. I shall call this beast…. The xNAS!

While doing this, I found a lot of badly presented and conflicting information. This is my attempt to right that wrong. I’ve attempted to add some of these steps to the Wiki, but it’s not accepting changes at the moment.

Kit you will need.1) A chipped Xbox. This is a bit of a cop out. There are many excellent tutorials around on how to chip an Xbox. If you’re not comfortable soldering around your Xbox – you can buy pre-chipped ones on eBay or the AVForums.

2) Some large IDE hard drives. The Xbox will take a maximum of 2 IDE devices. The largest drive I could find were 750GB each. You may be able to go larger using a SATA/PATA converter.

3) An ATA power Y-splitter. The Xbox’s DVD drive has a proprietary power connector. You’ll need a splitter if you want to power more than 1 HDD.

4) A set of torx screw drivers

6) Nerves of steel!

So… Let’s begin.

I chose Xebian Linux because it’s based on Debian. This means that all the packages are very well maintained. You should get a large range of programs with frequent security updates. The Xebian Basic distribution (which we’ll be using) doesn’t give you a GUI. You get command line access only. It might be a bit scary – but it keeps everything running quickly on the Xbox’s modest hardware.

Here’s what you need to do.Download the latest version of Xebian Basic.Burn the ISO on to a CD or DVD that you are sure your Xbox will read.Remove the Xbox’s original HDD – replace with your massive HDD.Boot using the Cromwell BIOS (or other method to boot unsigned content).Select the DVD drive.Linux will now boot! Hurrah!This is the point of no return. Once these next few steps are complete, your Xbox will be a Linux machine. You will not be able to play Xbox games on it.Type

XBOXLinuxInstall

Linux will start installing.You will want to choose Option 3. This will take over the whole disk for Linux.Answer the questions as they arise (set the IP address etc).

You can now remove the DVD drive (with the power off!) and replace it with another HDD.

You are now, technically, done. Xebian is installed. You (almost) have an xNAS. However, it is not (currently) very useful.

There are two things we need to do to get this Xbox in a usable state.1) Set up the DNS.By default, Xebian points to an outdated DNS entry. You will want to modify this to point to your DNS server.Type

nano /etc/resolv.conf

This opens the file in the nano editor. This is a very simple editor – much easier to use than emacs or vi.Edit it to say

nameserver 208.67.222.222nameserver 208.67.220.220

The IP addresses there point to the OpenDNS Servers – perfect if your ISP is a bit poor at providing a DNS service or you’re going to be changing your network configuration frequently.

2) Edit the update sources.

Because Xebian is based on Debian, we can update it in the same way as we would a normal Debian system.Unfortunately, Xebian uses a rather outdated sources.list (the file which tells Xebian where to look for updates).Luckily, it is very easy for us to update this!

I am writing from my new/old server, I just finished installing Ubuntu Desktop on it. It is an interesting experience.

I searched through your blog archive and I found 2 Jedi masters and no information.

Here’s my problem and I would like to ask if you have a solution:

I take tens to hundreds of pictures and videos every day with my phone/camera. I am a HGV driver not a photographer. All these pictures/videos are taking up space in my Google cloud and it is coming close to full. The next level is to pay even more for cloud storage. I have some spare time on my hands these days like everyone else and I was wandering if there is a simple solution to a network attached storage under Ubuntu for pictures and videos. I am also using DavinciResolve 16 on my laptop and I would like to have fast access to those video files stored on a nas. Access from outside my home network would be a bonus but not crucial.

This machine runs on an Supermicro X7DAL-E dual xenon motherboard with 16GB of ram 10-13 years old.

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